The Magnificent Seventh's Brass Band - Authentic New Orleans Jazz Funeral
Wendell Eugene - Trombone // Leroy Breaux - Drums // Mervin Campbell - Trumpet // Warren Hildebrand - Executive Producer // Edgar Smith - Tuba // Fredric Kemp - Sax (Soprano) // Fredric Kemp - Sax (Tenor) // Elliot Callier - Sax (Tenor) // Michael P. Smith - Photography // Cayetano Hingle - Drums // Alton Carson – Tuba
Certainly one of the most unique sights in New Orleans is that of a traditional jazz funeral in progress. The brass band is decked out in stately uniforms and is led through the streets by a professional mourner, who leads the crowd in song and dance. The bereaved accompany the casket, while other members of the funeral procession follow. This second line winds its way through the streets en route to the body's final resting place, where the music goes from solemn to joyous and the celebration begins for the one freed from earthly troubles.
This album takes the listener through all parts of such a service, with an informative narration by Milton Batiste, one of the great figures in the brass band tradition in New Orleans. These include the wake of inspirational gospel tunes, followed by the dirges, as the crowd accompanies the casket en route to the final resting place, and the joyful send-off as the preacher cuts loose the body and the soul of the parishioner goes on home to be with the Lord.
Batiste himself was accorded this traditional ceremonial tribute when he passed in March of 2001.Alton Carlson's Magnificent Seventh's Brass Band, featuring some of the city's top musicians, such as Fred Kemp on saxophone, Wendell Eugene on trombone, and Cayetano Hingle on drums, as well as Batiste on trumpet and Carlson on tuba. Together, they play the poignant and jubilant music of the jazz funeral tradition. Hearts are edified by tunes such as "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," "As I Lay My Burden Down," "In the Sweet by and By," "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," "When the Saints Go Marching In," and "Didn't He Ramble."
After such a joyous musical send-off, the listener cannot help but feel the power of the spiritual heritage that created this marvellous tradition in the birthplace of jazz. New Orleans is a state of mind. And, part of that experience is honest to goodness, get down jazz.
This is a wonderful album that brings a bit of New Orleans along with it. The music is wonderful. It makes feet tap. It plants tunes in the brain that the listener will hum for many days.
Jazz Funeral is a common name for a funeral tradition with music which developed in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The term "jazz funeral" was long in use by observers from elsewhere, but was generally disdained as inappropriate by most New Orleans musicians and practitioners of the tradition. The preferred description was "funeral with music"; while jazz was part of the music played, it was not the primary focus of the ceremony. This reluctance to use the term faded significantly in the final 15 years or so of the 20th century among the younger generation of New Orleans brass band musicians more familiar with the post-Dirty Dozen Brass Band funk influenced style than the older traditional jazz New Orleans style.
The tradition arises from African spiritual practices, French and Spanish martial musical traditions, and uniquely African-American cultural influences.
The tradition was widespread among New Orleanians across ethnic boundaries at the start of the 20th century. As the common brass band music became wilder in the years before World War I, some "white" New Orleanians considered the hot music disrespectful, and such musical funerals became rare among the city's caucasians.
For much of the mid-20th century, the Catholic Church officially frowned on secular music at funerals, so for generations the tradition was largely confined to African American Protestant New Orleanians.
After the 1960s it gradually started being practiced across ethnic and religious boundaries. Most commonly such musical funerals are done for individuals who are musicians themselves, connected to the music industry, or members of various social aid & pleasure clubs or Carnival krewes who make a point of arranging for such funerals for members. The organizers of the funeral arrange for hiring the band as part of the services.
When a respected fellow musician or prominent member of the community dies, some additional musicians may also play in the procession as a sign of their esteem for the deceased.
A typical jazz funeral begins with a march by the family, friends, and a brass band from the home, funeral home or church to the cemetery.
Throughout the march, the band plays somber dirges and hymns. A change in the tenor of the ceremony takes place, after either the deceased is buried, or the hearse leaves the procession and members of the procession say their final good bye and they "cut the body loose".
After this the music becomes more upbeat, often starting with a hymn or spiritual number played in a swinging fashion, then going into popular hot tunes. There is raucous music and cathartic dancing where onlookers join in to celebrate the life of the deceased.
Those who follow the band just to enjoy the music are called the second line, and their style of dancing, in which they walk and sometimes twirl a parasol or handkerchief in the air, is called second lining.
Here is a very moving example of a typical Jazz Funeral
http://lix.in/-3d8276
awesome! almost makes me wish i had some relative in new orleans that died so i could attend a funeral and hear this stuff live... is that wrong?
The Irate Pirate said...
February 8, 2009 2:02 PM
Thanks for this great music, it's the perfect musical background i needed for the book i'm reading now:"Louis Armstrong's New Orleans" by Thomas Brothers
gadaya said...
February 13, 2009 10:44 AM
I just discovered your blog and the treasures you are sharing. Thank you, thank you !!!!
Sharon said...
June 25, 2009 7:50 PM